"...if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, "What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Cor. 4:7), and, "But by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). (Council of Orange: Canon 6)

Contributors

We are a community of confessing believers who love the gospel of Jesus Christ, affirm the Biblical and Christ-exalting truths of the Reformation such as the five solas, the doctrines of grace, monergistic regeneration, and the redemptive historical approach to interpreting the Scriptures.

Essential Theology

Understanding Luke 10:13

In Luke 10 Jesus said, â€œ13 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades."

In verse 13, Jesus made it clear that if the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon had observed the same mighty works as those done in Chorazin and Bethsaida, they would have repented.

Someone who wears Arminian or synergistic glasses as they view this text (verse 13) might argue that the Reformed doctrine of Total Depravity teaches that far more is needed than merely the observation of mighty works for someone to repent â€“ it would need the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit â€“ so what would the Reformed response be to this? How are we to understand Jesusâ€™ words?

Itâ€™s a good question, and just for fun, I thought I would call Dr. James White on his live dividing line program earlier today to see what kind of answer he would provide.

Though we donâ€™t get to spend a whole lot of time together, James and I are good friends and he starts out by calling me Silly Brit 2.

You might ask, â€œWhy Silly Brit 2?â€

I believe the answer is quite simple in Jamesâ€™ mind; the name Silly Brit 1 was already taken!!

Being called â€œSilly Brit 2â€³ though prompted a response from me, which was somewhat .. wellâ€¦ silly.

I immediately took the opportunity to start speaking with a quite outragous Chinese accent (which James, for some reason, mistakenly thought was Japanese), assuming the identity of a man named Zacky Poo Poo, telling James I would no longer be delivering sausages to him because he is a very poor tipper!

Yeah.. and its kinda downhill from there!!

But the answer James eventually provided to my question was well worth hearing.

If all you wish to do is hear the question and answer interaction between myself and James, once the program starts you can move the audio recording on to about the 16 or 17 minute mark. However, itâ€™s an excellent show and I especially enjoyed Jamesâ€™ comments regarding Rob Bell later in the program.

Comments

Hey, sir. Thanks for the link to James White's response to your question.

However, I am afraid the link you provided is only leading me to the main AOMIN site, and since I can't see where you provided the actual name of the podcast That​ contains the referenced question you asked, I don't know what to search for.

I hope you are still active with your site; and if so, I would appreciate the exact link to perhaps a YouTube video with a time stamp, or the name of the actually podcast that I might search for it successfully.